STATE HOUSE ROUNDUP: Forry departure becomes lovefest

Monday

No gathering of governors for the next lawmaker to depart a legislative seat early. No joint session hoopla. No post-session spread in Room 428.

Linda Dorcena Forry of Dorchester took off for the private sector and got all that. Meanwhile, you ran to fill the Senate seat of your old boss Tom McGee Jr. and you'll almost surely win on March 6, and what'll you get when you do?

A nice enough House departure and Senate swearing-in, some kind words in a State House lounge. But it just is not going to be be the same amount of to-do. Nope, just a little pro-forma processing by Governor's Council and on to the chamber, with only the Lynn Item and News Service really into covering it.

Everybody said Forry was a hard act to follow, but perhaps no one will feel that quite so poignantly as Brendan Crighton. Or maybe the person who fills Forry's Senate seat come May 1.

Anyhow, Forry's goodbye ceremony Feb. 14 was an elaborately produced lovefest, a political sidewalk-of-the-stars guest list -- former Gov. Deval Patrick stopped by -- and hours of appreciation, congratulations and general adoration.

And to be sure, the praise was heartfelt. An articulate voice for underrepresented interests, Forry is a leader, meaning she exemplifies what lots of other people aspire to be. The world, and especially the political world, is drawn to such people.

Lest any misimpression be given here, the branches did do some non-ceremonial, substantive work last week.

The House passed its version of consumer-protection legislation aimed at mitigating the damage from breaches of cyber-privacy, most notoriously the Equifax breaches in which millions of Social Security numbers and a vast quantity of personal financial information was stolen by hackers. The Senate appeared to be getting ready to act on a similar bill.

And a $17 million mini-budget to fund the unanticipated costs of welcoming public-school students from Puerto Rico, among other purposes, got little attention but will make a lot of difference in the districts and agencies where the money's going. Gov. Charlie Baker signed the bill Feb. 16.

The Senate, meantime, unveiled a multilayered energy bill that was basically an anthology of legislation on carbon-emission pricing, the lifting of the cap on recoverable solar-energy savings, bans on fracking, encouragement of wind power and better energy storage, and a range of other initiatives that runs 71 pages in bill form. The bill was generated by chairman Marc Pacheco and the Senate Committee on Global Warming and Climate Change and it even earned a 6-0 vote with support from the panel's lone Republican, Sen. Patrick O'Connor of Weymouth.

The bill's arrival from a Senate-only panel rather than a joint House-Senate committee is noteworthy in that it reflects the continuing lack of harmony on the preferred direction of energy policy among House and Senate Democrats.

"It seems to be a collection of a lot of bills that got out of our committee favorably, plus a few more, so I'm excited about that. Sometimes we're hesitant to have bills be packaged together like that, but if he feels that's a good strategy I would defer to him and hopefully we can see some good things happening this year," said House Environment Committee Co-chairman Rep. William "Smitty" Pignatelli.

Run that through Google Translate, Massachusetts State Government Edition, and you'd get back something like, "I don't think so."

Pacheco (D-Taunton) said a long haul is to be expected, but ultimately, "You will see people taking to the streets and coming to the State House and being in the corridors of the State House and demanding that we move forward because it is urgent that we do so."

That was about it for buzzworthy action on the legislative side, but there was plenty to talk about, and write about, on the executive. You would think a $111 million MBTA operating deficit would lead the news in that category, but "what else is new" does not lead. The assailing of the Cannabis Control Commission's recently-unveiled draft regulations for the marijuana industry was the most-interesting management/implementation development.

The Baker administration has clearly organized its objections to a speedy, all-encompassing approach to launch pot sales by policy area, and coordinated the expression of those objections. In a series of letters, the relevant department heads on Baker's team expounded on his view that for now, retail marijuana should just be storefronts -- no yoga studios, no weed bars, no home delivery. They are not alone; Attorney General Maura Healey and 78 legislators weighed in last week as well, urging a more tightly confined approach when the CCC adopts final regulations in March.

Industry supporters don't see the administration's protestations as an effort at coherence so much as an "intimidation campaign" to stunt the growth of an enterprise the governor, attorney general and many lawmakers opposed legalizing. That quote was much heard last week, after Jim Borgeshani of the Marijuana Policy Project told reporters, "We are witnessing a coordinated intimidation campaign that threatens the independence of the Cannabis Control Commission and calls into question the appropriate relationship between the administration, the Legislature and the body charged with regulating this new industry."

The advocates argue the CCC can handle a responsible, wide-ranging rollout. Small farmers, small businesses and communities hurt most by the illicit pot market need that more lenient scope of availability, the argument goes. Law enforcement, public safety and public health officials argue that if the rollout is too fast it will lead to easy access for underage users, and foster more stoned driving.

Another danger often associated with marijuana is that it may be a gateway drug to use of much-more-dangerous and deadly substances. On that front -- the battle against opioid abuse -- there was finally some good news. Relatively. Massachusetts opioid deaths were down 8.3 percent last year, to 1,915.

"Today's report is a welcome development, however, there is so much more work to do to increase access to treatment -- particularly for individuals who are Hispanic," said Health and Human Services Secretary Marylou Sudders.

Shortly after that, it was on to another scourge -- the epidemic of mass shooting and school massacres.

The horrific events in Parkland, Florida, caused school systems statewide to reassess their student-training and response procedures. Rep. David Linsky (D-Natick) called for action on his bill allowing the preemptive seizure of guns at the request of families, police or mental-health providers. It's been consigned to legislative limbo in a study. Healey reissued her call for Congress to follow Massachusetts' lead and ban the sale of assault rifles and institute universal background checks for would-be gun-owners. The Gun Owners' Action League said Linsky's bill could make management of rage-filled individuals more problematic, while violating the Constitutional rights of law-abiding gun-owners.

Back to Crighton to wrap things up. He's part of a surging tide of recent movement in legislative ranks: five Senate seats vacated, the presidency in flux, a bevy of representatives announcing their retirements or bids for other offices. And he took his Forry-following fate in stride.

"Just focusing on doing the job, man," he said. "I don't pay a lot of attention to the hoopla in the media."